Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/138

126 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. "No," they replied, "it is the house of God." The conqueror then alighted at the foot of the altar, and mounting two or three steps, called out with a loud voice, " the country is laid waste, bring us fodder for our horses." All the corn in the magazines of the town was immediately brought, the chests containing the Koran were carried into the court of the temple by he Mongols to serve for horse-troughs, and the sacred books of the Mussulmans were trampled under the hoofs of their horses. The barbarians deposited their wine-skins in the midst of the mosques, sent for the merry-andrews and singing girls of the town, making the walls ring with the roar of their brutal revelry ; and while giving themselves up to every debauchery, the principal inhabitants of the town, the doctors of law, and the chief religious persons, were obliged to wait upon them as slaves, and tend their horses. After some hours, Tchinguiz-Khan left the town, and went to a place called the Field of Prayer, to which the inhabitants were accustomed to resort on certain days of solemn religious festival. They were now assembled on this spot by order of their ruthless invader. He ascended a kind of pulpit that stood there, and de- manded who were the richest persons of the place. They were pointed out to him, to the number of two hundred and eighty, and he then called them, and addressed them. After having mentioned the acts of hostility that had induced him to take arms against their Sultan, he said to them, "Know that you have committed great faults, and the chiefs of the people are the most criminal. If you ask me how I know this, I reply, that I am the ' Scourge of God ;' and that if you